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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Follow up to defective Christology: The Many Things and the Main True Thing

I'm listening to Denny Burk's lecture in the CD 'Drive By Pneumatology' called, "The Regenerating Work of the Spirit." Mr Burk gave a good analogy about Christ that I'd like to share. In speaking of Jesus in John 3:16 with the setting of Nicodemus and Jesus, Mr Burk,

"As the King sits before him, all Nicodemus sees is a good teacher. He can't see the kingdom. He can't see Jesus for who He is. Somebody may ask me at this point, 'good gravy, Denny, is it really such a big deal that Nicodemus doesn't see that Jesus is the King? Shouldn't we give at least a little credit to him for at least seeing that He is a good teacher from God?' "If I were to invite a certain famous person to speak to us here today, and since I invited him I would be responsible for introducing him. I might say, 'Here is a man who graduated from Yale, and Harvard Business School. He is a former airman in Air National Guard, and he comes from an important political family, maybe you heard of them, the Bushes? He once ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Texas House of Representatives. After that he became an owner of the Texas Rangers!

Ladies and gentlemen please help me to give a big Texas welcome to George W. Bush.""If I was to introduce him like that, how would that be received?... People would look around saying who is this idiot introducing the President? Why would they say that? Because it doesn't matter how many true things I say about President Bush if I don't say the main thing that's true about about President Bush, namely, that he was former President of the United States! In fact all that other stuff is kind of piddly in light of the fact that he was the President and I probably shouldn't even mention them.If I leave that out it is not a bad reflection on the President, it just reveals to everyone how dimwitted I am. It doesn't matter how many true things you see and believe about Jesus if you don't see and believe the main thing about Jesus!None of the rest matters unless you see that. You can see and believe that He is a great prophet, as the Muslims do. You can believe He is a good moral teacher as the Jews do. You can say He is loving and kind like almost every secular person believes. But if you fail to see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then none of the rest of the true things you believe about Jesus matters.